The War Womanpower Commission

In the 1940's, the average American consumed media through radio or newspapers. The WMC used this as an opportunity to address the labor shortage by recruiting potential workers through advertisements on these mediums. The fields of industry and agriculture had the largest labor needs, which the ads highlighted by convincing workers that their labor participation in these sectors directly and positively contributed to the war effort and the nation itself.

Recruitment also happened on the ground. The Victory Center Volunteer Office provided unemployed people with information about job openings. 

Once women applied and were accepted, they had to go to the workplace to train for their new jobs. Most of the jobs offered did not require prior experience, but rather, employers provided their new employees with proper training.

By participating in wartime industry, women were not just working. They also changed the very fabric of the American workplace itself. The image above is a glimpse of what more workplaces would look like until they evolved to the point where women in the workplace was not an anomaly. 

Well before the WMC, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was created in 1937 to address rural poverty. The WMC helped compliment the FSA. Due to these programs, women contributed to agriculture as much as industry. The implementation of food rationing during WWII made women's work on farms imperative to keeping food on the tables of Americans across the country. 

The opportunities fostered by the WMC ended up being a testing ground for women across the country. They proved to the country and the world that they belonged in the workplace too. Whether it was a factory or a farm, the work women performed during the war helped redefine the American workforce, and the percentage of women in the labor force continued to climb in the postwar era.